Image from The Mending Shop website, a pop-up shop by Futuremenders.

No more clothes, ever.  This is the “the age of collective mending”.

This is Futuremenders, a fun and deadly serious form of art activism. It sidesteps the traditional art world, cutting to the real business of art in an age of crisis – to futureproof our lives. It prepares us for barely imaginable but plausible futures where forgotten skills are vital for survival. Futuremenders is the lifelong project of UK artist Jonnet Middleton who took a pledge in 2008 to acquire no more clothes, ever. The monumental scale of the Futuremenders mission is to subvert our addiction to short-term shopping by spreading the joy of making and mending together.

“Sock Exchange” concept by Jonnet Middleton

Jonnet Middleton is a mending activist working to bring about the Age of Mending. This is a lifelong mission starting with a pledge in 2008 to consume no more clothes ever. The existing clothes in her wardrobe at that time are the clothes she must clothes herself with for the rest of her life through careful wearing and mending. What for others is a terrifying challenge, is for Jonnet both easy and liberating. She runs pop-up mending shops to encourage people to discover the joy of mending and to create spaces in which mending skills are shared on the high street. Her goal is to shift attitudes about mendability so that people become aware of our complicity in throwaway culture and start to find ways to mend.

Extract from the Mending Manifesto

Jonnet Middleton is a PhD candidate at Highwire doctoral training centre for radical innovation in the digital economy, Lancaster University. Her PhD aims to collectively bring about ”The Age of Mending”. [from the website futuremenders website]